Sven Elverfeld Aqua Restaurant Ritz Carlton Wolfsburg

Sven Elverfeld has been chef de cuisine for almost 15 years at Aqua Restaurant, situated within The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany, which was awarded with its third Michelin star in the Guide Michelin 2009. Sven started his culinary career in 1985 as a pastry chef apprentice at a confectionery/pastry shop in a small village close to 

Frankfurt for three years. He then did a second apprenticeship to become a chef at the cooking school of the LSG owned by Lufthansa, also in Frankfurt.

In his first position as a commis chef he worked at the “Gutsschänke” in  Johannisberg Castle, a basic German and French cuisine on a high standard, under  top chef Dieter Biesler. The first Michelin star restaurant he worked at, was the Humperdinck restaurant, then as a chef de partie with the three Michelin-starred chef Dieter Müller and afterwards at the Hessler restaurant, one Michelin star, as a sous chef.  His culinary career also took him to different countries like at the gourmet restaurant La Bouillabaisse in Crete and as well through a journey to different restaurant in Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan.

He graduated as a state qualified gastronome and master chef in 1998 and started his career with The Ritz-Carlton Company by working as Chef de Cuisine at the La Baie restaurant located in The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai. Almost two years later, in January 2000, he went back to Germany and opened Aqua at The Ritz-Carlton, Wolfsburg. In the Michelin Guide 2002 he was honoured with his first Michelin star, followed by his second in the 2006 Guide and the third in 2009.

His cuisine is a sophisticated combination of simplicity and refinement. The focus of Sven’s modern cuisine is on the essential, concentrating on the harmony of aroma, characteristic flavour and texture.  It is influenced by the seasonal inspiration, sometimes childhood memories, and from all his travels and different jobs abroad in countries such as Japan, Greece and the United Arab Emirates. Quite often his dishes reconnect to a personal memory and tell their own story. Aqua offers creative, open-minded and strong-flavoured dishes using the finest seasonal products available locally and from selected suppliers from all over the world. Dishes include items such as marinated mackerel, vegetable coulis mechouia or breast of étouffée pigeon with a light périgord truffle cream.

Sven also released his own huge cookbook (in a German and an English version) entitled ‘Sven Elverfeld’ in June 2011, each recipe within the book created and tried out in Sven’s restaurant. Available at www.restaurant-aqua.com.  His philosophy is “Attain your goal with commitment and love for detail”. Sven has proven this by achieving the highest award in the Michelin Guide since November 2008 when he became the first three-star chef in northern Germany. The German restaurant guides Gault Millau, Feinschmecker, Gusto, Aral, Varta and the Große Gourmetguide awarded him with the highest scores.

Sven’s awards include: Newcomer of the Year, Gault Millau in 2002 / Chef of the Year, Gault Millau in 2004 / Chef of the Year, Der Feinschmecker in 2007 /  and restaurant Aqua is recognized as one of the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants since 2010.

Words by Hollie Bligh

Photographs by kind permission: Gotz Wrage Ritz Carlton Wolfsburg & Markus Hohn Ritz Carlton Wolfsburg